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Please help with speaker choices

Hi all,
Well the room and time has lead me down the road to upgrading speakers. A most exciting time, but alas, filled with choices and no possible auditioning for me.

So I must relie on this communities suggestions and help!!

First the current system:
Nick Doshi Preamp
Nick Doshi modded Lectron JH50
Amazon Referenze TT
Triplanar Tonearm
CDP-Don't have one yet
Focal 1007 Be Monitors-current speakers

Room Size:
21 by 13 with 8ft cellings

Music:
I listen to pretty much everything. Sorry for being so general. In one listening session I may move from Coltrane, to Cannonball Adderly, to Muddy Waters and Johnny Lee Hooker to Lucinda Williams and electric/folk Neil Young. Throw in some Dylan and then move onto the White Stripes, Beck, if I'm real rowdy maybe some Ramones or AC/DC, then come down with some Edith Piaf and a sip of 12 year single malt.

Reason for wantng change:
One is I find this a hobby. For me that means having fun with experimentation. So far I have only owned the Focals.
Two is now that I moved my system against the short wall and facing out to the long part of the room, the monitors seems lacking, like they are too small to fill the space, like it is too much effort. Three is I have nerver had a floorstanding speaker and the prospect excites me. Four is, sitting wise, I can only get about 9 feet near to the Focals. To place them closer puts them right in the middle of the living room. Not really acceptable. At 9 feet, the monitors just not presenting the soundstage I desire. At that distance with monitors, I am just not in the heart of the music.

Also something important to note is I like listening loud, but do not always have that option as my system is in the living room and out of respect for others cannot always listen loud so I must have speakers that offer low volume detail.

My choices so far (more of course welcome)
Sonus Faber Cremona floorstanders
Merlin VSM-Mxe
Verity Fidelio Encore
ATC 20's passive

At the higher end(only consider if HIGHLY recommended)
Verity Parsifal ovation
Sonus Faber Amati Homage

Monitors I might consider
Focal Mini-Utopia Be
Sonus Guarnari Homage

OK, sorry for rambling so much. Obviously I am putting a lot of thought into this. Any input much appreciated!

Peter
mariasplunge
mariasplunge OP
174 posts
 
You guys are great, and I am enjoying this level of help. Sometimes it seems like this all a swirl in my head. Shadorne, I have never seen the ATC's in person or any of the speakers here that we are talking about, but aesthetics is important.

I do find the ATC in rosewood quite attractive and although less adorned than the others mentioned, they seem fine enough.

Interestingly, as Doug has pointed out, the Lectron is an extrodinarily powerful 50 wats as evidence that it drives Dougs 88db Vons to his satisfaction. Well after a talk with Nick who is currently modding the lectron to his reference level, i got to asking him what he uses. He is right now running the passive ATC 20's, 83 db with two ATC active subs in a room similiarly sized to mine. Nick's listening preferences vary like mine.

I find it amazing that 50 watts could do it for such speakers but I trust Nick. And as it is well know, and shadhorne brings up, that ATC midrange is magic. Seems like with two subs backing it up it might be fantastic. Maybe a little out ok my price range, the combo new at 10k but I could forego a higher priced CDP for the combo.

Any thoughts?
Peter
mariasplunge OP
174 posts
 
Sounds real, now that there is a fantastic idea.
mariasplunge OP
174 posts
 
John, I wonder since my line up will be completely tube based, if a warm speaker will be a little too much of a good thing. I've heard this said before, and jave never expereinced it, just bringing it up as a discussion point.

Of course Doug has similar upstream components and as I know, is extermely sensitive to ant coloration so I am assuming the Doshi pre and Modded Lectron are neutral in sound.?

Peter
clio09
3,355 posts
 
While RMAF presents you with the ability to look at many different speaker products under one roof, the sound in many of the rooms leaves a bit to be desired. If I were auditioning speakers this would be the last place I would do it at. On the other hand, if the speaker designers are on hand it gives you a chance to interact with them first hand and the event is a lot of fun.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 

08-09-07: Mariasplunge
Johnny, thanks for the vote for the Sonus Fabers. have you expereince with the Cremona's. Very good looking. I was wondering about the small front baffle and what that sounded like.
I have a local Sonus Faber dealer. I am not sure if I've specifically heard the Cremonas, but I've heard several SF speakers and I've liked them all. They have a family signature that I like a lot. SF manages to give you a fine musical perspective and lots of perceived linearity and clarity, while never sounding clinical. They are always musical and engaging, regardless of musical type and they're tolerant of differing levels of source quality. Here's a Stereophile review of the Cremonas by John Atkinson.

And if you're looking for aesthetic appeal, Sonus Faber leads the way. They invented that staved construction which is being copied so much. They use unusual combinations of materials and they're very finely finished. I'd do my house in Sonus Fabers in a heartbeat if I could afford to.

A narrow or small baffle eliminates diffraction distortion (soundwaves bouncing off the front baffle) which results in a pinpoint sort of imaging where the speakers disappear and a 3-d image floats in space.

The floor-standing Cremonas have a narrow front baffle; it's the stand-mount Extremas that have almost no front baffle. There's a pair in the closed auctions on eBay, priced at $7000 with stands (they were about $12K new + $1500 for factory stands) that had no bids here.
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